Madhya Pradesh: Much-Awaited Sleemanabad Canal Tunnel to Dominate LS Poll Campaign Yet Again

About 1,84,000 hectares of land will get irrigation water in Rewa, Satna, Katni, Maihar and other districts of Madhya Pradesh once the Sleemanabad canal tunnel is completed. About Rs 600 crore has already been spent and works worth over Rs 200 crore are yet to be completed. The project will also drench the thirst of the local people in many parts of the State.

Jabalpur.A tunnel of Bargi Dam Canal being built near Sleemanabad in the Jabalpur district will change the economic picture of many districts. About 1,84,000 hectares of land will be irrigated through this tunnel. The common man of Rewa, Satna, Katni and Maihar districts has been eagerly waiting for the Sleemanabad tunnel for over 16 years.

They are hopeful that their water shortage will be fulfilled through this tunnel, but the work was expected to be completed in one year. Now only 1440 meters is left for this tunnel. Once completed, it will become the country's first water tunnel of about 12 kilometers long and 10 meter diameter. The geological condition inside the ground slowed down the pace of construction of this canal.

When Bargi Dam of Jabalpur was being built, preparations were made to take the water of Narmada river to Satna and Rewa through this dam. For this, a big river-like canal had to be built from Jabalpur to Satna. Digging of this canal was started and this canal was almost completed, but according to the map, this canal had to pass through a town named Sleemanabad, which is situated on a hill.

Narmada Valley Development Authority made a plan to build a water tunnel under this hill without destroying Sleemanabad. This was a very ambitious project. A 12 kilometer long wire tunnel was to be built in it. If the tunnel had not been built, then about 100 feet deep excavation would have had to be done in this entire area and the construction cost would have been very high to maintain the 100 feet deep trench. Therefore, a proposal was made to build a water tunnel from here and its work was started. Very big machines were used to dig this water tunnel and efforts to build it have been going on continuously for the last 16 years.

Sajal Kumar Srivastava, executive engineer of Narmada Valley Development Authority, is currently the head of this project. He said: 'External work is still going on. A company named Patel Engineering of Mumbai is doing it. At present 1440 m more tunnel has to be dug. Which will probably be completed by December."

Sajal Kumar Srivastava said that the biggest enemy of this tunnel is the geological status of this area. Actually, Sleemanabad must have been the center of a major geological activity. Which no one knew about. When the work of digging this 10 meter wide tunnel was started, initially the machine had to cut only the mud. No one had any idea that as the excavation progressed inside the hill.

Sajal Kumar further said that while digging, many times such hard stones were encountered which broke the machine itself and many times only soil was taken out while caves were also found. Although digging inside these caves was easy, they were filled with water and this water would destroy the entire machine. At some places, marble was exposed, but it was very difficult for the machine to cut this marble. Many big sink holes were formed inside, when these sink holes were closed, then the work could continue further.

About Rs 600 crore has been spent so far in its construction. Still around Rs 200 crore more will be spent. After the construction of this water tunnel, the age-old problem of a large area of ​​Madhya Pradesh will end. In fact, there is a severe water problem in the entire area of ​​Satna, Rewa, Maihar, Nagaud and Katni. People of this area are in need of drinking water and due to lack of drinking water, many times people have to migrate. The project is aimed at improving the economic condition of half of Madhya Pradesh.

The leaders of Rewa, Satna and Maihar areas mention in their speeches every year that the water from Bargi dam will be brought to Satna. By accepting these promises, the people made Ganesh Singh the Bharatiya Janata Party MP of this area, but in the last assembly polls, when he made the same promise, the people did not believe him and Ganesh Singh had to lose the elections. The completion of this project will once again dominate the current Lok Sabha election.

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